- Insufficient qualified human resources
- Inability of the State to effectively control and monitor the sector
- Actions in sight to demand change
“The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries is dying and so is the country,” declared the General Secretary of the National Union of Mining and Energy Workers (SYNATRAME), Augustin Sebgo. However, “the worst is not the wickedness of bad people, but the silence of good people” quoting Norbert Zongo. It was during a press briefing hosted by the union on January 19, 2023 at the Ouagadougou Labor Exchange. The objective was to inform the public opinion on the working conditions and inadequacies within the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries (MEMC) which would negatively impact the economy of the country.
From the outset, the trade union organization recalled the place occupied by this sector in Burkina Faso through these performances and its contribution to the development of the national economy. Despite its performance, the sector is facing difficulties that might harm the socio-economic development of the country. According to SYNATRAME, these are, among other things, the situation of insecurity which limits the monitoring-control and inspection missions of agents in the field, the accentuation of anarchy in the sub-sector of small-scale mining, the non-availability of financial means and the lack of vehicles and equipment for the execution of field missions, the lack of continuous training within the framework of capacity building and the defective state of certain buildings housing Services.
“Lack of qualified human resources able to control the sector”
The SG of SYNATRAME, Augustin Sebgo insisted on the need to build capacity and specialize agents in the various skills of the sector. According to him, because of the lack of skills required in the administration of the mines, the State is unable to control and monitor this sector effectively. “We are often forced to take statements and information provided by companies at face value without being able to provide a second opinion due to a lack of skills,” he explained. However, training opportunities abound. “From the mining boom to date, no specific or support agent has had the opportunity to do refresher or specialization training in a reference mining country,” he added. In addition to this, the time granted for monitoring-control and observation missions is insufficient, while in other African countries, a permanent presence of a mine administration agent is required in each mine in production. . “It should be brought to the attention of public opinion that no mining agent is present during the casting of the gold and it is not possible to know whether the quantities and titles of the ingots declared are reliable,” insisted Mr. Sebgo.
In spite of these difficulties, the staff of the ministry says it is committed to defending the interests of the country through personal contributions, in particular the use of personal rolling stock for internal missions, the payment of training on a personal basis within the framework of the execution tasks and the realization of certain missions on personal pre-financing with an uncertain reimbursement.
Proposition de solutions
Ministry staff will give themselves the right to take action to demand change. But for the moment in order to remedy this situation, the union has proposed solutions during the press briefing. This involves, among other things, making the permanent presence of agents on the industrial mines effective for monitoring production, collecting data and ensuring compliance with the regulations, carrying out in-depth reforms of the craft industry mining and to ensure respect for the authority of the state in this sub-sector and to incite and encourage national investors to take an interest in industrial and energy mining operations and in the acquisition of holdings (purchase of shares ) in the capital of these companies. Also, the union recommends the provision of technical structures with rolling stock and equipment for the execution of monitoring-control and inspection missions and the strengthening of the capacities of agents through specific training to better meet the requirements of the sector. .
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